- Successful 8.3% rise in van registrations
- Ford van sales are flying
- But electric van demand falls again in September
- Stellantis best-selling eLCV OEM
NEW LCV registrations rose 8.3% in September to help the year-to-date figure to record a 3.6% rise. That’s the good news.
Less helpful was the decrease in the uptake of electric vans, which fell 18.7% in September compared to the same month last year. The latest monthly figures mean that year-to-date, electric LCVs are down 9.5% and now account for less than 5% of the market. A year ago, electric vans took 5.5% of the market.
The ongoing drop in electric van sales has led the SMMT to call for an extension to the plug-in van grant that is currently due to end in March 2025. The SMMT’s open letter, which also calls for equalisation of VAT on public charging to meet the 5% home charging rate and mandating charging infrastructure targets, has been backed by 12 major OEMs.
Source: SMMT
Overall, diesel van registrations were up 10.6%.
Flying Ford
In a near inversion image of Ford’s car registrations, its commercial vehicle sales have been very strong in 2024. Indeed, Ford’s LCV total is greater than its car sales. So far this year, Ford has sold 86,451 LCVs and a further 2,331 commercial vehicles over 3.5t, while it has sold just 85,727 cars in the same period.
Year-to-date, Ford is up nearly 7,000 vans helped by the introduction of the new Transit Custom and new Transit Connect, plus revisions to the Ranger pick-up.
Ford has been helped in the pick-up market by several brands exiting the sector in recent years.
Overall Ford LCVs are up 8.8% in the first nine months of the year and the brand accounts for very nearly a third of the market with a 32.3% market share, up from 30.8% a year ago.
At this level Ford outsells the combined next three brands; Volkswagen, Vauxhall and Renault.
Stellantis success
Peugeot and Citroen may feature in the five largest unit fallers this year, down 1,401 and 3,952 respectively, but parent group Stellantis, which also sells Vauxhall and Fiat LCVs, claimed to be the best selling EV manufacturer.
Despite its overall unit fall this year, Peugeot is the best-selling electric van brand with Vauxhall taking second place. Stellantis combined LCV EV registrations took nearly 42% of the BEV market.
Stellantis also argues that as a group, with all four brands, it accounts for 25.8% of the total LCV market
Top 5 brands by unit increase YTD
Bottom 5 brands by unit decrease YTD
1 Ford 6,968
2 Mercedes 3,415
3 Volkswagen 2,856
4 Maxus 1,620
5 Iveco 1,592
5 Man -562
4 Isuzu Trucks -610
3 Peugeot -1,401
2 Toyota -2,386
1 Citroen -3,952
Read our new van market analysis of August 2024 registrations
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Tristan Young is an award winning journalist with more than 25 years’ experience reporting on the automotive industry focussing predominantly on fleet and retail. As a self-confessed petrol-head, Tristan has a weakness for car classifieds. When he’s not writing about the automotive industry, he can usually be found outdoors with a small pack of border collies.
